715- How can people know the limit of what is necessary?
“Those who are sensible know it by intuition, but many recognize it at the cost of their own experience.”
716- Hasn’t nature traced out the limit of what is necessary in our own physical organization?
“Yes, but people are insatiable. Nature has traced out the limits of their needs in their physical organization, but their vices alter their constitution and create artificial needs.”
717- What should be thought of those who monopolize the fruits of the earth to procure for themselves what is superfluous at the expense of others who lack what is necessary?
“They do not understand God’s law and will have to answer for the privations they have caused.”
The line between what is necessary and what is superfluous is not absolute. Civilization has created necessities that do not exist in the primitive state, and the Spirits who dictated these precepts do not mean for civilized humans to live like primitives. Everything is relative and it is up to reason to place each thing in its proper place. Civilization develops moral sense, and at the same time, the sentiment of charity, which leads people to mutually support one another. Those who live at the expense of others’ privations exploit the benefits of civilization for their own profit. They have only the varnish of civility just as there are persons who possess no more of religion than its appearance.
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